Hungary. 16 February 1849

* Pesth, 8 February. Miskolcz is again in the hands of the Hungarians. How often, however, was all Hungary already as good as conquered, namely in the martial-law gazettes! How many times had Kossuth already been taken prisoner, namely in the Croat journals and the newspapers of German imbecility and huckster spirit? The Diet in Debreczin had been dissolved, after it had itself previously dissolved the Hungarian army, a hundred Magyar representatives were already begging for mercy at the feet of Windischgrätz’s bestiality (for the sake of amusement one might also compare Dumont’s “Gallows Gazette” in the months of December 1848 and January 1849, where Bürger Schwanbeck regularly made his Austrian executioner’s howling resound under the signature Δ). And now? Oh, now even the *Pesther Zeitung*, the official martial-law gazette, is obliged to declare the following:

“He (Kossuth) incessantly incites the people to rise up and resist, to arson and devastation, so that the royal troops shall find no sustenance. – Bem has demanded 20,000 saddles and so Kossuth has collections made by all the inhabitants in the surrounding area. – The insurgents, still considerable in number, are posted along the Theiss at Rakamaz, Polgar and Tisza Füred.”

Reports just arriving from Hermannstadt, dated 2 February, relate that General Bem, with reinforced strength, has again assumed the offensive; Puchner finds himself in great distress. Deputations from the Saxon towns are begging him to call in the Russian troops.